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HA 


' I#/  < 


R MEMORIAL, 


FROM  THE 


SYNOD  OF  KANSAS, 


■01ONQCHTW  WOPCTTT 
er  THE  im«0N  IHEOLMiMi 

■Ptattfihtk 


OF  THE 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 


ASKING  FOR  THE 


RESTOf^ATION  OF  THE  NEZ  PER0E  INDIANS 


TO  THEIR  HOME 


IN  IDAHO  TERRITORY. 


WINFIELD,  KANSAS: 

COURIER  JOB  PRINTING  HOUSE. 


f 


R MEMORIAL, 


FROM  THE 

SYNOD  OF  KANSAS, 


OF  THE 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 


ASKING  FOR  THE 


RESTOI^ATION  OF  THE  NEZ  PERGE  INDIANS 


TO  THEIR  HOME 


IN  IDAHO  TERRITORY. 


WIMFIE’-D,  KANSAS  ; 


COURIER  JOB  PRINTING  HOUSE. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/memorialfromsynoOOpres 


24803 


R MEMORIAL, 

FROM  THE  SYNOD  OF  KANSAS,  OF  THE  PRESBYTE- 
RIAN CHURCH,  ASKING  FOR  THE  RESTORATION 
OF  THE  NEZ  PERCE  INDIANS  TO  THEIR  HOME 
IN  IDAHO  TERRITORY. 


To  His  Excellenxy  Chester  A.  Arthur,  President  of  the 
United  St.ates  : 

.\t  a meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  Emjroria,  held  at  Bur- 
lingame, Kansas,  in  October,  i88i.  Rev.  Archie  B.  Lawyer, 
pastor  of  the  Oakland  Church,  composed  of  Nez  Perce  Indi- 
ans, located  in  the  Indian  Territory,  and  belonging  to  that  part 
of  the  tribe  known  as  t.’hief  Joseph’s  Band,  presented  the  fol- 
lowing communication  : 

0.\KL.AND  Agency,  Ind.  Ter.,  Sept.  30,  1881. 
From  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Oakland  Agency  : 

We,  the  church  members — including  elders  numbering  150, 
do  hereby  authorize  our  ]>astor,  Archie  Lawyer,  to  lay  and  rep- 
resent our  desire  before  the  Presbytery. 

I St.  We  do  not  wish  to  stay  in  this  country  ; therefore  we 
do  not  desire  a church  to  be  built  at  this  Agency,  for  we  expect 


4 


that  the  Government  will  soon  carry  out  or  fulfill  its  promises 
to  send  us  back  to  Idaho.  When  we  surrendered  to  General 
Miles  it  was  understood  that  we  were  to  be  sent  back  to  our 
country  immediately.  But  Government  has  kept  us  here  in 
this  country.  But  we  are  not  in  good  health  generally  and  a 
great  many  of  our  people  are  in  bad  health,  and  we  are  dying 
off  very  fast.  The  climate  is  not  suitable,  and  we  would  be 
better  off  if  we  were  in  Idaho  among  our  people.  There  we 
could  enjoy  our  health  far  better  than  we  can  here.  We  earn- 
estly appeal  to  Presbytery  to  consider  these  matters  and  do 
something  to  better  our  condition.  While  we  make  our  ap- 
peal to  Presbytery  we  remember  that  there  is  a still  higher 
power  than  man’s,  who  directs  all  things.  We  have  expressed 
our  desires  in  tears  and  sorrow,  for  we  cannot  be  silent  when 
we  bury  our  friends  one  after  another.  Some  one  has  to  give 
an  account  to  God  for  lives  lost  since  we  have  been  forced  to 
die  and  suffer. 

This  is  the  request  of  all  Christians. 

In  behalf  of  the  church, 

* Archie  B.  L.vwyer,  Pastor. 

The  presentation  of  this  letter  led  to  the  following  action  by 
the  Presbytery,  which  was  re-affirmed  by  the  Synod  of  Kansas, 
which  latter  body  represents  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Kan- 
sas and  the  Indian  Territory  : 

Whereas,  A letter  from  the  Oakland  Presbyterian  church, 
composed  of  Nez  Perce  Indians,  has  been  presented  to  this 


o 


body  by  Rev.  Archie  B.  Lawyer,  their  pastor,  praying  our  as- 
sistance in  securing  their  return  to  their  home  in  Idaho  ; 

Resolved,  That  a committee  be  appointed  to  bring  the  case 
of  this  people  to  the  attention  of  the  Synod  of  Kansas,  in  or- 
der that  we  may  secure  its  co-operation  in  an  effort  to  obtain  a 
redress  of  some  of  the  hardships  and  wrongs  under  which  this 
band  of  Indians  now  sutfer. 

[ Resolved,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Presbytery,  the  Gov- 
ernment is  bound  by  every  consideration  of  honesty,  public 
policy  and  humanity  to  grant  the  request  of  this  body  of  Nez 
Perces  to  be  sent  back  to  to  their  native  land,  and  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons : 

ist.  It  was  sti])ulated  at  the  time  these  Indians  surrendered 
to  General  Miles  that  they  should  be  sent  back  to  Idaho,  and 
it  was  upon  this  condition  alone  that  they  laid  down  their  arms. 

2nd.  These  Indians  were  self-supporting  in  Idaho,  never 
accepting  any  rations  from  the  Government,  but  subsisting 
, themselves  entirely  by  modes  of  stock-raising  and  agriculture, 

I not  practicable  in  their  present  location.  In  the  Indian  Terri- 
I tory  they  are  supported  wholly  by  the  Government,  and  their 
j jjassionate  desire  to  be  reunited  with  their  tribe  and  restored 
|l  to  their  native  country  makes  it  well  nigh  impossible  to  inter- 
|t,  est  them  in  any  scheme  for  self-improvement. 

^ 3rd.  The  great  change  from  the  clear  mountain  air  and  pure 
water  of  their  mountain  haunts  to  the  flat  malarial  plains  of  the 
j Indian  Territory  and  the  sluggish  waters  of  the  Salt  P'ork  of 


6 

the  Arkansas  river  has  proved  very  disastrous  to  the  health  of 
this  people. 

4th.  This  band  is  but  a fragment  of  the  Nez  Perce  tribe,  the 
great  body  being  still  in  Idaho,  and  families  are  so  divided  by 
this  exile  that  consequently  the  hardship  of  their  forcible  de- 
tention in  the  Indian  Territory  is  greatly  increased. 

These  resolutions  were  in  accordance  with  this  recommend- 
ation of  Presbytery,  carried  up  to  the  Synod  of  Kansas,  and 
there  re-affirmed ; and  your  memorialists  were  appointed  by 
this  latter  body  as  their  representatives  to  bring  the  matter  to 
the  attention  of  the  General  Government,  and  to  use  such 
means  as  they  deemed  best  and  calculated  to  aid  these  Indians 
in  securing  their  removal  to  Idaho. 

The  members  of  the  committee  appointed  to  prepare  this 
memorial  have  lived  on  the  border  of  the  Indian  Territory  a 
number  of  years,  and  have  been  brought  in  contact  with  all 
kinds  of  Indians.  We  have  no  sentimental  ideas  as  to  the  su- 
perlative goodness  of  the  red  man.  Perhaps  we  have  had  our 
views  concerning  Indians  tinged  with  the  prejudice  against  the 
Indian  which  usually  exists  in  the  mind  of  the  frontier  settler. 
At  any  rate,  although  we  believed  that  the  request  of  these  In- 
dians ought  to  be  granted  from  what  we  knew  of  their  situa- 
tion, we  did  not  anticipate  that  all  their  claims  as  to  violation 
of  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  Government  or  alleged  bad 
treatment  would  be  borne  out  at  every  point  by  a careful  inves- 
tigation. We  confess  that  we  were  surprised  to  find,  in  e.xam- 


ining  the  Government  reports,  not  only  of  the  Indian  Depart- 
ment but  also  those  emanating  from  officers  of  the  army,  that 
every  claim  these  Indians  have  made  has  been  most  emphatic- 
ally endorsed  and  fully  substantiated.  We  have  held  personal 
interviews  with  a number  of  Government  officials  and  have  had 
correspondence  with  others,  and  we  have  yet  to  find  a single 
person  who,  either  in  official  report  or  when  directly  interro- 
gated by  us,  has  been  able  to  allege  anything  in  justification  of 
the  treatment  which  these  Indians  have  received  at  the  hands 
of  our  Government.  All  who  have  had  any  relations  with  them 
as  officers  of  our  Government  seem  to  echo  the  sentiment  of 
Wm.  J.  Pollock,  Esq.,  one  of  the  Government  inspectors  of  In- 
dians, who  in  response  to  a letter  of  inquiry  from  this  com- 
mittee in  a communication  dated  November  19,  1881,  says  : 

“ I thank  God  that  your  church  has  been  interested  in  be- 
half of  these  unfortunate  people.  1 have  in  times  past  pre- 
sented the  case  of  the  N'ez  Perces  to  the  Department  with  all 
the  force  at  my  command,  and  because  thus  far  my  appeals 
have  not  been  heard,  I have  thought  that  I alone  of  all  the 
world  considered  them  aggrieved.  Your  letter  encourages  me 
to  think  that  something  may  yet  be  clone  for  them.” 

In  making  this  plea  in  behalf  of  these  people  we  have  not 
been  compelled  to  go  outside  of  Government  reports.  In- 
deed, we  find  the  justice  of  their  cause  more  clearly  and  for- 
cibly set  forth  by  the  representatives  of  the  Government  than 
by  the  Indians  themselves.  The  Department  records,  public 


8 

documents,  and  the  accounts  of  all  that  have  visited  them  go 
to  show  that  the  Nez  Perces  are  distinguished  for  traits  rare  in 
the  Indian.  Noted  for  their  superior  intelligence,  their  power, 
and  wealth  of  cattle  and  horses,  their  fine  physical  develop- 
ment, freedom  from  disease  and  comparative  virtue  ; they  have 
been  conspicuous  for  their  warm  friendship,  for  an  unshaken 
fidelity  to  the  pale-faces  and  for  their  strong  attachment  and 
unwavering  loyalty  during  the  late  war.*  From  the  time  they  were 
first  brought  in  contact  with  the  white  man,  during  the  visit  of 
Lewis  and  Clark  in  1806,  they  have  always  shown  themselves 
trustworthy  and  the  protectors  of  the  white  man  and  his  prop- 
erty when  the  white  men  were  completely  in  their  power.  Both 
rebel  and  Mormon  emissaries  tried  in  vain  to  shake  their  alle- 
giance to  our  Government,  and  when  the  Nation  needed  their 
services  they  never  failed  to  respond  to  the  call.f.  And  until 
the  late  war  with  this  band  of  Nez  Perces,  it  could  be  said  that 
“if  one  probable  case  of  murder  in  1862  be  excepted,  it  is  a 
fact,  without  precedent  in  American  Indian  history,  that  no 
Nez  Perce  of  the  full  blood  ever  killed  a white  man.”  In  the 
war  which  resulted  in  sending  that  band  to  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory they  took  no  scalps.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
great  body  of  the  Nez  Perces  are  on  the  Reservation  in  Idaho; 
that  they  have  never  been  accused  of  the  least  breach  of  their 
treaty  covenants  with  the  Government,  but  were  ever  active  in 

*The  Status  of  Vmina' Joseph  nnUer  tho  Treaties.  &c.  H Clay  Wood.  A. 
A Gen.,  Dept.  Columoia,  Portland,  Ore^oti.  p.  20. 

+ lu:d,  p.  21 


9 

efforts  to  assist  the  Government  in  its  efforts  to  subdue  the  out- 
break of  Chief  Joseph’s  band.  Some  of  them  were  killed  and 
others  wounded  in  battle  with  their  own  kindred.  The  tribe  in 
Idaho  numbers  2500.  Chief  Joseph’s  band,  in  whose  behalf 
this  memorial  is  prepared,  are  the  only  ones  of  this  tribe  who 
ever  engaged  in  hostility  with  the  whites.  It  is  not  the  prov- 
ince of  this  committee  to  attempt  any  justification  of  this  war 
against  the  Government.  We  cannot  forbear,  however,  enforc- 
ing our  plea  by  the  statement  that  the  motives  which  actuated 
Joseph  and  his  people  in  this  resistance  of  the  Government 
were  such  as  would,  in  the  case  of  any  civilized  nation,  be  pro- 
nounced patriotic  and  just. 

These  people  (Joseph’s  band)  had  signed  the  treaty  of  1855, 
which  ceded  to  them  that  territory  which  they  regarded  as  their 
ancestral  home;  but  when  the  treaty  of  1863  was  proposed, 
which  would  take  that  land  to  which  they  were  so  greatly  at- 
tached, and  which  they  believed  the  Great  Spirit  had  given 
them  and  their  fathers  for  an  inheritance,  they  persistently  re- 
fused to  sign  it.  The  other  portion  of  the  tribe  acceded  to  its 
terms  and  went  upon  the  Reservation,  and  have  remained  there 
to  this  day. 

In  1876,  when  emigration  was  overflowing  upon  the  land 
claimed  by  Joseph,  the  Government,  fearing  trouble  with  his 
band,  sent  a commission,  of  which  General  Howard  was  a mem- 
ber, to  secure  the  removal  of  Joseph’s  band  to  the  Reservation 
set  apart  by  the  Government  for  Nez  Perce  Indians.  Before 


10 

this  commission  Joseph  persistently  maintained  his  right  to  the 
land,  and  asked  nothing  of  the  Government.* 

In  this  interview  five  particulars  are  cited,  in  which  the 
treaty  with  Reservation  Indians  had  not  been  kept  ;t  and  Joseph 
argues  from  this  unfaithfulness  with  which  the  Government  has 
treated  the  pledges  of  this  treaty,  that  it  would  not  be  wise  for 
his  people  to  go  on  the  reservation.  J Standing  aside  from  the 
treaty  of  1863,  and  watching  with  a vigilant  eye  the  way  in 
which  the  Government  treated  those  of  his  tribe  who  had  en- 
tered into  treaty  relations,  and  finding  that  at  every  point  the 
Government  had  ignored  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  when- 
ever the  Indian’s  rights  had  been  neglected  and  trampled  upon, 
and  that  every  provision  which  bound  the  Indian  was  rigidly 
enforced;§  in  short,  discovering  that  the  covenants  of  a treaty 
were  a band  of  steel  on  the  Indian  but  a mere  rope  of  sand  on 
the  white  man  ; who  can  blame  him  for  refusing  to  place  him- 
self under  the  power  of  such  a treaty.  We  have  no  doubt  that 
Joseph  would  have  been  induced  to  go  on  the  Reservation  if 
the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  1863  had  been  observed  with 
the  Reservation  Indians.  In  defense  of  what  they  deemed 
their  natural  rights  against  a people  they  had  never  injured, 
and  of  whose  failure  to  fulfill  treaty  obligations  they  had  been 
constant  witnesses,  this  band  of  Indians  took  up  arms.  After 


* Kept,  of  Bd.  of  Ind  C'lmaiissioners,  1876,  pp.  44  and  4',. 

+ Kept.  Bd  Ind.  Com.,  1876.  p.  47. 

J Kept.  Bd.  Ind.  Coin.,  1876,  p.  ."iS. 

8 1 he  Status  of  Young  Joseph.  H.  Clay  Wood,  pp.  24—30. 


11 

a campaign  remarkable  alike  for  the  bravery  of  the  Indians 
and  the  consummate  generalship  of  their  leader*  and  the  ab- 
sence of  acts  of  savage  barbarity, | this  band  surrendered  to 
General  Miles  with  the  express  stipulation  that  they  should  be 
sent  back  to  Idaho. f How  were  these  honorable  foes,  con- 
quered in  a war  in  which  they  were  nearer  right  than  our  Govern- 
ment, treated  ? They  were,  in  violation  of  the  conditions  asked 
for  and  granted  at  the  surrender,  viz, — that  they  should  be  sent 
back  to  Idaho, — brought  to  Fort  Leavenworth  and  located  on 
the  low  bottom  la  no  of  the  Missouri  river,  the  very  hot-bed  of 
malaria  their  women  were  outraged  by  the  soldiers  ;§  many 
of  their  robes,  blankets  and  other  effects,  including  some  of 
their  supplies,  were  taken  from  them  by  their  captors.];  They 
were  taken  into  the  Indian  Territory,  where  sickness  and  death 
followed  them,  so  that  by  the  vicissitudes  of  war — but  largely 
on  account  of  the  sickness  occasioned  by  the  change  of  cli- 
mate and  the  hardshij)s  attending  this  change — out  of  950  souls 
that  crossed  the  Lolo  Trail  in  June,  1877,  only  320  remain,  and 
only  about  30  of  these  would  be  classed  as  warriors. 

Commissioner  Kingsley,  in  his  report  for  1878,  says,  in  sum- 
ming up  his  statements  concerning  these  Nez  Perces  : “Joseph 
stands  before  the  American  ])eople  a victim  of  duplicity  ; his 
confidence  wantonly  betrayed  ; his  substance  pillaged  ; an  in- 
voluntary exile  from  home  and  kindred  ; his  ‘cause  ’ lost  ; his 

* General  Howarfl's  “Cnief  Joseph;  his  Pursuit  and  Capture,”  p.  274. 

+ Report  of  Bd  of  Ind.  t om  . 187S  p.  48. 

t Report  Bd.  < f Ind.  Com..  1878.  p.  .51 

8 See  testimony  on  tileinint  Dep’t.  t.-iken  bv  Agent  Whiting,  at  Ponca 
Agency. 


12 


people  rapidly  wasting  by  pestilence  ; an  object,  not  of  haughty 
contempt  or  vulgar  ridicule,  but  of  generous  humane,  treatment 
and  consideration.”* 

These  Indians  to-day  are  simply  prisoners  of  war,  wrong- 
fully held  and  dishonorably  treated. 

We  ask  that  these  Indians  be  restored  to  their  home,  not 
only  as  a matter  of  justice,  but  also  on  consideration  of  public 
policy.  In  the  Indian  Territory  they  will  very  likely  always  be 
pensioners  on  the  Government.  Twenty  years  residence  here 
will  never  make  these  people  feel  otherwise  than  as  exiles. 
Several  have  already  committed  suicide  from  sheer  homesick- 
ness. Friends  who  were  interested  in  them  thought  that  by 
erecting  for  them  a church  building  and  inducing  the  Govern- 
ment to  build  houses  for  them  they  might  be  won  over  to  con- 
tentment with  their  lot  ; but,  as  you  will  see  by  reference  to 
the  letter  with  which  this  memorial  opens,  they  do  not  want  a 
church  built,  and  for  the  reason  that  their  desire  to  go  back  to 
the  mountains  swallows  up  everything  else.  Their  kindred  on 
the  Reservation  will  give  them  land  among  them.  Joseph  and 
his  band  are  eager  to  accept  these  terms  and  will  return,  prom- 
ising to  stay  on  it.  Joseph  and  his  people  have  never  given 
consent  to  the  alienation  of  the  land  taken  from  them  without 
treaty ; and  if  the  opinion  of  some  competent  lawyers  is  cor- 
rect, they  are  legally  entitled  to  recover  this  land.  Would  it 
not  be  a wise  act  of  policy  to  treat  with  them  for  the  lands  to 


Report  of  Bd.  of  Ind.  Com.,  1878,  p.  51. 


13 


which  the  Government  has  no  valid  title,  by  granting  them  the 
privilege  of  returning  to  the  Reservation  in  Idaho  ? 

In  addition  to  the  facts  already  stated,  we  would  urge  as  a 
reason  for  restoring  these  people  to  their  tribe  in  Idaho,  the 
great  wrong  done  in  separating  kindred,  and  in  the  breaking 
up  of  families.  Parents  are  here  whose  children  are  in  Idaho  ; 
children  are  here  whose  parents  are  in  Idaho.  Husbands  are 
separated  Irom  wives.  Presuming  the  Indians  wholly  in  the 
wrong  in  this  war  (which  no  one,  to  our  knowledge,  alleges), 
we  know  no  article  ot  civilized  warfare  which  justifies  the  sepa- 
ration of  wife  from  husband,  children  from  parents.  Would 
not  a humane  policy  suggest  that  this  state  of  affairs  ought  to 
be  righted  and  this  people  restored  to  their  tribe  as  speedily 
as  possible  ? 

W e would  also  call  attention  to  the  mortality  among  this 
people.  L pon  the  testimony  of  the  Government  physician 
and  others  who  are  cognizant  of  the  facts,  the  climatic  change 
from  the  bracing,  invigorating  air  of  their  former  home  to  the 
malarial  flats  of  the  Indian  Territory,  has  been  highly  detri- 
mental to  the  health  of  this  people.  If  the  mortality  continues 
to  be  great,  and  if  some  action  is  not  taken,  the  “ common  lev- 
eler,”  death,  will  remove  this  people  beyond  the  power  of  the 
Government  to  right  the  great  wrong. 

Your  memorialists,  Mr.  Pressdent,  represent  a body  of 
Christian  people,  who  are  striving  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
religion  and  good  morals  on  the  frontiers  of  this  country,  and 


14 


to  whose  care,  religiously,  these  Indians  have  been  committed. 
We  feel  that  fidelity  to  our  trust,  and  jealousy  for  the  honor  of 
our  country,  compels  us  to  make  this  plea.  We  have  a dumb 
consciousness  that  there  is,  in  the  farts  presented  in  this  me- 
morial, material  for  an  appeal  which  would  touch  to  the  quick 
the  heart  and  conscience  of  this  Nation,  in  the  hands  of  a 
skillful  writer  or  speaker.  Lacking  these  gifts,  we  must  con- 
tent ourselves  with  this  simple  recital  of  our  story,  trusting  in 
that  quick  sense  of  justice  and  chivalry  of  heart  which 
prompted  you  in  former  years  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the 
wronged  and  helpless,  to  make  good  any  want  of  force  in  our 
presentation  of  this  appeal.  It  may  be  that  we  have  made  a 
mistake  in  coming  to  you  directly  with  our  grievance.  Per- 
haps we  ought  to  have  presented  our  memorial  to  Congress, 
or  to  one  of  the  Departments.  In  our  ignorance  of  political 
methods  we  have  come  directly  to  you,  believing  that  you  are 
willing  to  listen  to  statements  of  the  “plain  people  ” in  behalf 
of  the  cause  of  justice  and  humanity,  unaided  by  political  in- 
fluence or  official  endorsement.  Being  confident  that  our  ap- 
peal will  not  be  disregarded,  but  that  you  will  use  all  power 
lodged  in  your  hands  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  to 
redress  this  wrong,  we  commit  the  cause  of  this  injured  people 
to  your  care. 

In  behalf  of  the  Synod  of  Kansas. 

James  E.  Platter, 

Samuel  B.  Fleming, 

James  Wilson. 


